You’ve probably noticed that I try to include at least one photo in these newsletters each week. Some of them even relate specifically to the story I want to tell.
I’ve been taking photographs since I was a boy. I can’t remember how old exactly but I started out with a little 110 Kodak camera that you flipped the cover open and it became a support to hold the camera steady with. I took a lot of photographs with that camera. Many of them have been lost to time, but I am slowly working my way through a couple of large boxes of prints and slides that I found when clearing my parents house that contain some of them, and many of the ones that my Dad took.
It was him that got me interested in photography and taught me the basics. He was interested in many things throughout his life but photography was probably one of the most constant.
I graduated to an SLR camera when I was a little older and that evolved into a number of different cameras over time. I probably got into digital photography around late 2002 and again that has evolved, and was my main focus for many years until early 2020.
With impeccable timing as Covid started to take off (the two are not related it was a coincidence). I thought I’d go back to film for a bit and asked for some rolls of film for my birthday.
I actually received them a little early, but after having loaded up my camera and exposed about a third of a roll, the first lockdown hit and my rate of taking new pictures of any kind slowed. Eventually I finished the roll and got them developed, and an old hobby started to snowball once again. I experimented a bit with infrared film and a number of different cameras, including ones gifted to me by a friend, who heard me talk about getting back into film photography.
I still get a buzz from waiting for the roll to be developed and getting the images back.
I’d estimate that now - phone pics aside - my photography is roughly half-and-half split between film and digital. I enjoy both, but using film again has also taught me to experiment more with my digital cameras too. Looking at the emulsions used in film and trying to recreate some of the style with digital images.
In some ways I think this is a lifetime hobby, but I am conscious of my own health and mortality. There is a predisposition to a certain eye condition on my Dad’s side of the family, and ultimately this may result in my not being able to continue with photography and some other things. However for the now I am enjoying myself.